On September 30, three workers at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, 120 km northeast of Tokyo, set off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. ``The two bills were drawn from the lessons of the Tokaimura accident,'' said an official for Science and Technology Agency. In Tokaimura, workers illegally used steel buckets to pour 16 kg of uranium into a precipitation tank, setting off a critical reaction that exposed at least 69 people to radiation and forced more than 320,000 to shelter at home for more than a day.

The uranium processing plant was privately run by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd. subsidiary JCO Co. Ltd. and was not subject to government inspection under current laws. But one of the two bills passed today requires the government to conduct``periodic'' inspections of such facilities, said the Science and Technology Agency official. ``From the Tokaimura accident, a lack of alertness among JCO workers became apparent,'' the official said. ``We came to the conclusion that we need to conduct periodic inspections of facilities like JCO's.''

In addition, the first Bill would create government officials in charge of nuclear safety and inspections, who would be sent out to work at major nuclear facilities. The second Bill was designed to ``beef up the government's crisis management role when a nuclear accident happens'', the official said.

``The (Tokaimura) accident exposed the need for the government to strengthen its coordination with local authorities under such circumstances,'' the official said. Under the second Bill, the Prime Minister is authorised to declare a state of emergency, set up a nuclear crisis-management task force and send in the troops.